“ONCE UPON A TIME…I WAS…. Posting all the states’ (and some major cities’) CAFRs at my other blog Cold,HardFact$.

[Scroll down, links on the sidebar under “FIND A State CAFR,” I attempted to locate the CAFR for the City of Baltimore (not just State of Maryland) CAFR for 2011. So far I haven’t, but while looking but did find a good selection of some of the various government enterprises under the City Government simply by running across a Department of Audits “Recently Issued Audits” Site.

Two of them caught my eye by simply having long titles and strange wording, like “Baltimore Rising.”  After enough years of this, instinct counts, and my instinct said look further.  First of all, it shouldn’t be hard to find a city’s current CAFRs, and on this Recent Audits, for some reason they’d been led to audit their own comprehensive annual financial reports. Then I found THIS audit (see post title) of an HHS three-year grant which began in the Mayor’s Office of Children, Youth and Families.  “MOCYF”

This link has to be read through to be believed, though I put some summaries below (it’s a very short report, actually).

 PERFORMANCE AUDIT REPORT – MENTORING CHILDREN OF INCARCERATED PARENTS GRANT 90CV0215

AWARDED TO THE MAYOR’s OFFICE FOR CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES

(BALTIMORE RISING, INC.) FROM THE US DEPT. OF HHS:  FOLLOW-UP REVIEW MAY, 2010 

[Note — that’s not what HHS called it, but simply “Baltimore City Mayor’s Office.” not “Mayor’s Office of Children Youth and Families”]

(click on the Grantee Name link in chart below, for what else it’s into.Of interest:  This first grant was 8/19/2004.  On 6/30/2004, it got $994,100 for “interim methadone treatment.”  On 8/19/2004, it got this grant. on 9/17/2004 (one month later) the $994,100 grant was removed from HHS records….). etc. From “TAGGS.hhs.gov”  Note they didn’t even bother to “name” the grant, it simply adopted the CFDA-assigned name, which is identical.

  THIS IS FOR THE AUDITED GRANT (but didn’t pass), 90CV0215

[[2013 December archives around Christmastime post clean-up and re-ran the 90CV grants), since referenced this; my html smarts weren’t so hot at this time]]

Right away — why switch DUNS#s mid-stream?  Also the “**” may be by “Baltimore City” I later learned, because Baltimore does not fall under any county – it is separate from “Baltimore County.”  The topic there was the UBaltimore School of law:

It is clear this grantee switched DUNS# in a certain year (2007) and that the larger and bulk of grants center around drug treatment and incarceration issues, for example:

(I just did a run of this category of “mentoring children of prisoners/CFDA 93616” in Maryland — there are 57 grants altogether, many of them in Baltimore.  Interesting).. After reading the audits below and looking up this grant, I decided to look up Principal Investigator Ms. Ariano.  Apparently she administered this grant.  However the City of Baltimore CPA said, in essence, questions the entire viability of the $900,000 federal grant, based on lousy administration of it.  So naturally I was curious about the principal investigator. On the web, a pretty thorough Speakers Bio on-line shows that the negative audit didn’t exactly slow her down much — she’s now in charge of the Jericho Project under Episcopal Services, as of about May 2007.   (approaching the end of this grant, by which time it was probably under scrutiny for misappropriation). She’s hanging with “Faith-Based” organizations, and has a background in helping vulnerable populations (by overseeing the theft of federal grants??).  Hate to say this, but I’ve been telling us to watch out for that category in particular! (the image is the link)

Bonnie Ariano

Director of The Jericho Program Bonnie Ariano currently serves as the Director of The Jericho Program, which is a non-profit ex-offender re-entry program under the auspices of Episcopal Community Services of Maryland. In this capacity, Ms. Ariano supervises a staff of nine, which include three Case Managers, two Job Developers, a Recruitment Specialist and a Training and Mentoring Coordinator and is responsible for monitoring the Federal Prisoner Re-entry Initiative grant which supports the Jericho program model of job readiness training, skills assessment and job placement. It is a true second chance for most of the participants and they continue to receive assistance and support throughout their year of enrollment. Ms. Ariano began in this position in May 2007, bringing with her over 32 years of experience in the human service field, 25 of which were in the non-profit sector.

Added 2013:  I see I didn’t look up the corporation status of “Episcopal Community Services of Maryland,” so here is that lookup:

Interesting, it was incorporated in 1939, right before WWII (well, in 1939) and not long after religious groups were granted special exceptions under the IRS.  Street address 1014 West 36th Street is now labeled “REBUILDING TOGETHER BALTIMORE” A NATIONAL GROUP, FORMERLY CALLED “CHRISTMAS IN APRIL.”

Rebuilding Together

The Baltimore affiliate was founded in 1989 as Christmas in April Baltimore. Since then, more than 20,000 volunteers have repaired 1,070 homes, 29 non-profit facilities, completed dozens of community projects, and..

…In 1988, with the help of Steve Winchell, John McMeel and Bobby Trimble, a national program, Christmas in April, USA, was formed to help spread the program throughout the United States. Patty Johnson, former Executive Director of the Washington, D.C. program, was hired as the first Executive Director for Christmas in April, USA. Thirteen cities were involved that first year.

Christmas in April  Baltimore was founded in 1989 by Joanna von Briesen, Howard Hunt, Thomas Jaudon, and Geoffrey Krug. Since its first Rebuilding Day in 1990, the Baltimore affiliate has organized more than 19,400 volunteers to perform repairs valued at over $6.1 million on more than 966 homes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, Maryland.

From those early days, the idea has spread to include more than 235 local affiliates in communities from all 50 states. The work of more than 2,700,000 volunteers, in over 1,880 cities and towns throughout America, has resulted in the repair and rehabilitation of more than 105,000 houses and non-profit facilities involving more than 27,000,000 volunteer hours.

Rebuilding Together is now the largest volunteer organization preserving and revitalizing low-income houses and communities in the nation.

WHAT A WONDERFUL IDEA.  TOO BAD, HOWEVER, EPISCOPAL COMMUNITY SERVICES (SAME ADDRESS) HIRED OR ACCEPTED A WOMAN WHO WAS KNOWN, FROM A 2009 AUDIT — TO HAVE PRESIDED OVER (OR BEEN P.I. FOR) THE DISGRACEFUL THEFT OF NEARLY $1,000,000 OF HHS FUNDING, and a duplicate vendor receipt of $25,000, etc.

The umbrella organization was registered (in MD, at least) only in spring 2013) and is a stock corp. (not a nonprofit?).  Maryland shows many, named by county, within the state.

It was formed in 1989, NON-Stock, at the same address, with the name-change from “Christmas-in-April-Baltimore” happening in 2001, and (see pdf)  The former street address (600 Baltimore Avenue #205, TOWSON, MD) is now home to a Title Company.  I’m wondering if this Ron Deutsch is any relationship to THIS Robin Deutsch (also prominent AFCC leadership, Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, etc.), Although I guess Maryland isn’t close enough to Massachusetts..

Massachusetts links right TO “AFCC” on their state site:  http://www.mass.gov/courts/courtsandjudges/courts/probateandfamilycourt/afccsharedparenting.pdf

[[These later lookups after I became more aware of how many HHS-grantee programs are run right out of church addresses, which can get complicated when it comes to tracking the finances).

Here are 501(c)3’s with the word “EPISCOPAL” in them, listed in Baltimore; those for which contributions are tax-deductibel anyhow, as you can see some are “Services” and some relate to Housing, and one is the convention.

EIN	Legal Name (Doing Business As)	City	State	Country	Deductibility Status
52-1686012	Christian Vocation Project of Memorial Episcopal Church Inc.	Baltimore	MD	United States	PC
52-0591545	Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Diocese of Md	Baltimore	MD	United States	GROUP
52-0591564	Episcopal Community Services of Maryland Inc.	Baltimore	MD	United States	PC
20-3499496	Episcopal Housing Community Development Corporation	Baltimore	MD	United States	PC
52-1939344	Episcopal Housing Corporation	Baltimore	MD	United States	PC
23-7439344	Waters Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in the City of Ba	Baltimore	MD	United States	PC

This has the same man signing the tax return and the same street address as the one below, with program purpose:

“Episcopal Housing Corporation missioni s to respond to God’s call to establish justice for those most in need by building affordable housing and creating the foundations for healthy and sustainable communities.”

= = = = = =

**EHC is weird — (I just looked at three tax returns), they received program service income including government contracts of about $20K to $30K/year, have NO activity and NO contributions, the forms are scrabbledy.  yet their assets base is going up.  Finally one said:

•Episcopal Housing Community Development Corporation 20-3499496

990EZ Line 26; Episcopal_Housinq Community_Development Corporation has reciev_ed a loan to-acquire and renovate 3401 OakfleldAve._  Baltimore,_MD 21207 and operate the proPerty as affordable housing per our mission statement and organizational documents’

The street address looks like St. Mary’s Episcopal – Parrish House and I see a few more (probably 501(c)3s) in operation out of the same place.

• http://hampdenfamilycenter.org/resources.shtml   (see A.I.M. — “Action in Maturity” 3900 Roland Avenue.

• The third church building was built in 1873 and still stands today. The parish was decommissioned in 2002 and the building was turned into an outreach center for the Hampden community. In 1964 the congregation tore down its rectory, which stood just south of the 1873 church, and the Roland towers assisted living complex was erected. The chapel at the northern boundary of the parcel is still standing but is vacant. The building was previously occupied by a separate congregation.

  The Victorian graveyard is one of a few remaining in the city that is still physically connected to the church of its origin. Founded around the same time as the episcopal parish, Saint Mary’s Cemetery has graves dating back to the late 19th Century. The park is open from from dawn until dusk and is worth visiting for the view alone. A tour of Hampden is not complete without a trip to Saint Mary’s.

• Here is some of the history:

ANYHOW, ENOUGH OF THAT.  THERE’S NO KNOWN CONNECTION BETWEEN THOSE HOUSING CORPORATIONS AND EPISCOPAL COMMUNITY SERVICES; I was just browsing….

Where the money is, esp. if it can get hooked up with government…. More, on Ms. Ariano and the conference she was attending, at the bottom of this post…..

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